CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Isaiah 48 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/isaiah/48.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/isaiah/48.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/isaiah/48-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../isaiah/">Isaiah</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../isaiah/47.htm" title="Isaiah 47">◄</a> Isaiah 48 <a href="../isaiah/49.htm" title="Isaiah 49">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-1.htm">Isaiah 48:1</a></div><div class="verse">Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, <i>but</i> not in truth, nor in righteousness.</div>XLVIII.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">Are come forth out of the waters of Judah.</span>—The words limit the wider terms of Jacob and Israel to the Judæan exiles. For the phrase, comp. “ye that are of the fountains of Israel” (<a href="/psalms/68-26.htm" title="Bless you God in the congregations, even the Lord, from the fountain of Israel.">Psalm 68:26</a>). The ideal attributes of Israel, “swearing by the name of Jehovah <span class= "bld">. . .</span>” are pressed in contrast with their actual state of hypocrisy and unrighteousness.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-2.htm">Isaiah 48:2</a></div><div class="verse">For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts <i>is</i> his name.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">They call themselves of the holy city . . .</span>—The words of praise are spoken, as the preceding words show, with a touch of irony. Those who so boasted were not true citizens of Zion (<a href="/psalms/15-1.htm" title="Lord, who shall abide in your tabernacle? who shall dwell in your holy hill?">Psalm 15:1</a>; <a href="/matthew/3-9.htm" title="And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say to you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.">Matthew 3:9</a>). They did not enter into all that was implied in their confession of Jehovah Sabaoth.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-3.htm">Isaiah 48:3</a></div><div class="verse">I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did <i>them</i> suddenly, and they came to pass.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">I have declared . . .</span>—Once more, for the seventh time, the prophet presses the fact of the Divine foreknowledge, not, as before, against the “no-faith” of the heathen, but against the “little faith” of Judah.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-4.htm">Isaiah 48:4</a></div><div class="verse">Because I knew that thou <i>art</i> obstinate, and thy neck <i>is</i> an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Because I knew that thou art obstinate . . .</span>—The point is that Jehovah foresees not only the conquests of Cyrus, but the obduracy of His own people. In Egypt (Jeremiah 44) and in Babylon, as of old, they were still a stiff-necked people, inclined (<a href="/isaiah/48-5.htm" title="I have even from the beginning declared it to you; before it came to pass I showed it you: lest you should say, My idol has done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, has commanded them.">Isaiah 48:5</a>), to ascribe their deliverance to another god, and to worship that god in the form of a graven image.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-6.htm">Isaiah 48:6</a></div><div class="verse">Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare <i>it</i>? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Thou hast heard . . .</span>—The appeal is to the conscience of the exiles. They had heard the prediction. They are bidden to consider it all. Should not they declare the impression it had made on them?<p><span class= "bld">I have shewed thee.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">I shew thee, </span>as a present incipient act.<p><span class= "bld">New things.</span>—The “new things” are those that lie in a more distant future than the conquests of Cyrus, which are referred to as “former things.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-7.htm">Isaiah 48:7</a></div><div class="verse">They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.</div>(7) <span class= "bld">They are created now . . .</span>—The verb is an unusual one, as applied to the events of history. What is meant is that the things which had been from the beginning in the mind of God are now, for the first time, manifested, through the prophet, as about to pass into act. What these are the prophet develops in the following chapters, as including the spiritual redemption and restoration of Israel. They were kept in store, as it were, to make men wonder (<a href="/context/romans/16-25.htm" title="Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,">Romans 16:25-26</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Even before the day when . . .</span>—Better, and <span class= "ital">before to-day thou heardest them not<span class= "bld">. . .</span> .</span> The reason given for what we might almost call this method of reserve and reticence, was that the people had been till now unprepared to receive the truth, and in their state it would but have increased their condemnation (<a href="/john/16-12.htm" title="I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.">John 16:12</a>; <a href="/mark/4-33.htm" title="And with many such parables spoke he the word to them, as they were able to hear it.">Mark 4:33</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-9.htm">Isaiah 48:9</a></div><div class="verse">For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">For my name’s sake . . .</span>—The thought is two-fold, in answer to the implied question why Jehovah had not punished so guilty a people: (1) after the manner of men, that had He destroyed His chosen people, the nations of the world would have thought Him changeable and capricious; (2) taking “name” as the symbol of character, that He might assert His own everlasting righteousness and love, as willing to save rather than destroy.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-10.htm">Isaiah 48:10</a></div><div class="verse">Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">I have refined thee, but not with silver . . .</span>—The meaning is obscure, and perhaps depends on some unknown process in ancient metallurgy. Commonly the refining of silver is taken as a parable of God’s dealings with His people (<a href="/isaiah/1-25.htm" title="And I will turn my hand on you, and purely purge away your dross, and take away all your tin:">Isaiah 1:25</a>; <a href="/context/ezekiel/22-18.htm" title="Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they are brass, and tin, and iron, and lead, in the middle of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver.">Ezekiel 22:18-22</a>; <a href="/malachi/3-3.htm" title="And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness.">Malachi 3:3</a>). Here the thought seems to be that the discipline had been less fierce than that of the refiner’s fire. Silver was “purified seven times in the fire” (<a href="/psalms/12-6.htm" title="The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.">Psalm 12:6</a>); but that would have brought about the destruction of Israel, and He sought to spare them.<p><span class= "bld">I have chosen thee.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">I have tested thee.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-11.htm">Isaiah 48:11</a></div><div class="verse">For mine own sake, <i>even</i> for mine own sake, will I do <i>it</i>: for how should <i>my name</i> be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Will I do it . . .</span>—The neuter pronoun includes the whole work of redemption.<p><span class= "bld">For how should my name be polluted?</span>—The italics show that “my name” is not in the Hebrew, but the context requires its insertion as from <a href="/isaiah/48-9.htm" title="For my name's sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I cut you not off.">Isaiah 48:9</a>. or that of “my glory” from the clause that follows. The “pollution” or desecration of the name of Jehovah would follow, it is implied, on the non-completion of His redeeming work.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-12.htm">Isaiah 48:12</a></div><div class="verse">Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I <i>am</i> he; I <i>am</i> the first, I also <i>am</i> the last.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">Hearken unto me, O Jacob.</span>—The prophet is drawing near to the end of the first great section of his book, and his conclusion takes the form of a condensed epitome of the great argument of Isaiah 40-47, asserting the oneness, the eternity, the omnipotence, the omniscience of Jehovah.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-14.htm">Isaiah 48:14</a></div><div class="verse">All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these <i>things</i>? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm <i>shall be on</i> the Chaldeans.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">All ye, assemble yourselves.</span>—The challenge is addressed as before (<a href="/isaiah/43-9.htm" title="Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and show us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.">Isaiah 43:9</a>) to the worshippers of idols.<p><span class= "bld">The Lord hath loved him.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">He whom the Lord loveth will do his pleasure. </span>The context leaves it uncertain whether the “pleasure” and the “arm” are those of Cyrus or Jehovah. The latter seems to give a preferable meaning. There is, perhaps, an allusive reference to the idea implied in the name of the great king of Israel (David, “beloved,” or “darling”). Cyrus was to be even as a second David, beloved of the Lord.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-16.htm">Isaiah 48:16</a></div><div class="verse">Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there <i>am</i> I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.</div>(16) <span class= "bld">Come ye near unto me.</span>—Here the address would seem to be made to Israel. At first Jehovah appears as the speaker, and as using much the same language as before. At the close the prophet appears abruptly, as speaking in his own person. Perhaps, indeed, the prophet is the speaker throughout. A paraphrase will perhaps help to explain the sequence of thought. “I have not from the beginning of my prophetic work spoken in dark, ambiguous speeches like the oracles of the heathen. From the time that the great work began to unfold itself I was present, contemplating it. Now the time of revelation has come. <span class= "ital">The Lord God hath sent </span>me (this is the Hebrew order); <span class= "ital">and His Spirit. </span>This gives, it is believed, an adequate explanation. By some interpreters the closing words are referred to the mysterious “Servant of the Lord,” and by others the Spirit is made the object and not the subject of the word “sent.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-17.htm">Isaiah 48:17</a></div><div class="verse">Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I <i>am</i> the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way <i>that</i> thou shouldest go.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">The Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit.</span>—The words applied to the natural human, perhaps we may add, to the specially national, desire, to make a good investment. The question what was profitable? was one to which men returned very different answers. It was the work of the true Redeemer to lead men to the one true imperishable gain (comp. <a href="/matthew/16-26.htm" title="For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?">Matthew 16:26</a>), to lead them in the one right way (<a href="/context/john/14-4.htm" title="And where I go you know, and the way you know.">John 14:4-6</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-18.htm">Isaiah 48:18</a></div><div class="verse">O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:</div>(18) <span class= "bld">Then had thy peace been as a river.</span>—Literally, “as <span class= "ital">the </span>river,” <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>the Euphrates, which for the Babylonian exiles was a natural standard of comparison. “Righteousness,” as elsewhere, includes the idea of the blessedness which is its recompense. United with “peace” it implies every element of prosperity.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-19.htm">Isaiah 48:19</a></div><div class="verse">Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">Like the gravel thereof.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">as the bowels thereof, i.e., </span>as that within the bowels of the sand, the living creatures that swarm in countless myriads in the sea. The two verses utter the sigh which has come from the heart of all true teachers as they contemplate the actual state of men and compare it with what might have been. (Comp. <a href="/context/deuteronomy/32-29.htm" title="O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!">Deuteronomy 32:29-30</a>; <a href="/luke/19-42.htm" title="Saying, If you had known, even you, at least in this your day, the things which belong to your peace! but now they are hid from your eyes.">Luke 19:42</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-20.htm">Isaiah 48:20</a></div><div class="verse">Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it <i>even</i> to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">Go ye forth of Babylon . . .</span>—The sorrow and sighing are past, and the prophet speaks to the remnant that shall return. They are to act without fear on the promises of God, on the decree of Cyrus, and to start at once on their homeward journey, and as they go, to proclaim what great things God hath done for them.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-21.htm">Isaiah 48:21</a></div><div class="verse">And they thirsted not <i>when</i> he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">He caused the waters to flow . . .</span>—A dead prosaic literalism makes men wonder that there is no record of such wonders on the return from Babylon. A truer insight recognises that the “water out of the rock” is, as ever, the symbol of spiritual refreshment (<a href="/context/isaiah/41-17.htm" title="When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue fails for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.">Isaiah 41:17-19</a>; <a href="/context/isaiah/43-19.htm" title="Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.">Isaiah 43:19-20</a>; <a href="/john/4-10.htm" title="Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that said to you, Give me to drink; you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water.">John 4:10</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/isaiah/48-22.htm">Isaiah 48:22</a></div><div class="verse"><i>There is</i> no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">There is no peace.</span>—The warning was needed even for the liberated exiles. There was an implied condition as to all God’s gifts. Even the highest blessings, freedom and home, were no real blessings to those who were unworthy of them.<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. Used by Permission. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a></div></div></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="left"><a href="../isaiah/47.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="Isaiah 47"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="Isaiah 47" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../isaiah/49.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="Isaiah 49"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="Isaiah 49" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="rightbox"><div class="padright"><div id="pic"><iframe width="100%" height="860" scrolling="no" src="//biblescan.com/mpc/isaiah/48-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></div></div><div id="rightbox4"><div class="padright2"><div id="spons1"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td class="sp1"><iframe width="122" height="860" scrolling="no" src="/commentaries/ellicott/sidemenu.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></div><div id="bot"><br /><br /><div align="center"> <script id="3d27ed63fc4348d5b062c4527ae09445"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=51ce25d5-1a8c-424a-8695-4bd48c750f35&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script> <script id="b817b7107f1d4a7997da1b3c33457e03"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=cb0edd8b-b416-47eb-8c6d-3cc96561f7e8&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-2'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-0' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-3'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-1' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div align="center" id='div-gpt-ad-1531425649696-0'> </div><br /><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:200px;height:200px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3753401421161123" data-ad-slot="3592799687"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> <br /><br /> </div><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhchap.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></body></html>